The Costa Del Mar Sunglasses Warranty Settlement Is $4.095 Million — but the Court Papers Put the Payout at About $2.25 per Repair, Against an $11.95 Fee. The Opt-Out Window Closed October 8; the Final Approval Hearing Is January 20, 2027.

If you paid Costa a warranty fee to fix a manufacturer’s defect in a pair of non-prescription Costa sunglasses you bought before 2016, and the fee was charged between August 20, 2013 and February 29, 2020, you are probably in this settlement — and you do not need to do anything to be paid. The money will be small. The court’s preliminary approval order of August 17, 2026 records the plaintiff’s estimate: “participating Class members are expected to receive approximately $2.25 per claim to be paid via paper check, Venmo, PayPal, or Zelle, based on the Class member’s preference.” That is about 19 percent of the $11.95 fee the lawsuit is about, by our arithmetic.

The court itself framed it that way. It wrote that the possible recovery ran “from the full amount of the alleged processing fee—i.e., $11.95, plus tax—on the high end, to $0.00 on the low end, if, for example, Costa’s statute-of-limitations-defense is successful,” and found “the anticipated recovery of approximately $2.25 per claim reasonable” given those risks. Nothing is paid until the settlement gets final approval. The hearing for that is on January 20, 2027, and the opt-out deadline of October 8, 2026 has already passed.

The certified class is “All citizens in the United States who (i) purchased a pair of non-prescription Costa sunglasses prior to January 1, 2016, and (ii) paid Costa a warranty fee to repair or replace those sunglasses damaged by a manufacturer’s defect from August 20, 2013 to February 29, 2020.” Costa, its people, the judge and the lawyers are excluded. Florida residents are not excluded, unlike in the separate nationwide Reed repair-fee settlement, which leaves Florida buyers to the Haney case.

Payment is counted per repair, not per person. Under the settlement agreement, a class member “will receive one payment for each unique RI number identified in Costa’s Data”. The RI number is the identifier Costa gave each repair submission. After administration costs and attorneys’ fees come out, each RI number gets an equal pro rata share. Three qualifying warranty repairs at the estimated rate would come to about $6.75, by our arithmetic. The court says Costa’s records show “hundreds of thousands of Class members.”

Here is where the money goes. Costa was to deposit $500,000 up front for notice and administration within thirty days of preliminary approval. The other $3,595,000 comes within thirty days after the settlement takes effect. According to the settlement website, class counsel at Holland & Knight asked for $1,200,000 in fees and expenses, about 29 percent of the fund. Take that and the $500,000 start-up deposit away and roughly $2.4 million would be left. At $2.25 a share, that suggests on the order of a million qualifying repairs. That is our inference; the number of RI numbers has not been published. The judge rules on the fee request at the January hearing.

On timing, the agreement sets the payment date (the “Distribution Date”) at 37 days after the Effective Date. That date comes only after final approval and after any appeal is resolved or the time to appeal runs out. No payment date has been announced. Checks and electronic payments not cashed or claimed within 60 days after the Distribution Date become ineligible, and the administrator may void them. If at least $150,000 is left after that, a second distribution goes to people who cashed the first one, as long as each would get at least $1.00. Whatever remains after that goes, subject to court approval, to the organization Captains for Clean Water. None of the money goes back to Costa.

Nothing, to get paid. There is no claim form. Epiq uses Costa’s customer records to find class members, and the notice plan calls for email where Costa has an address on file and first-class mail otherwise. The one optional step is choosing how you are paid. The agreement says class members can pick “paper check, Venmo, PayPal, or Zelle” on the settlement website, and “To the extent a Settlement Class Member does not select a Payment Method, the Settlement Class Member shall receive their payment via paper check.” To choose, use the Unique ID and PIN from your notice on the official site. If you moved since your repair, a check is the payment most likely to go astray, so an electronic option or an updated address is worth sorting out.

Opting out and objecting are over. Under the court’s order, exclusion requests had to be postmarked within thirty days of the first notice mailing, and the settlement website gives that deadline as October 8, 2026 for both exclusions and objections. Anyone who did not opt out is bound by the outcome and cannot bring their own claim over the same fees. The final approval hearing is January 20, 2027, at 9:30 a.m. ET at the Duval County Courthouse, 501 W. Adams Street, Jacksonville, FL 32202. The court can move that date without new notice. The plaintiff has to file the final approval motion, with the lists of opt-outs and objectors, at least fourteen days before. A Form 1099 may be issued for the payment.

How do I get my Costa sunglasses replaced? Not through this settlement. It pays cash for old fees and does not repair or replace anything. Broken or defective glasses go to Costa’s own warranty program. According to Costa’s U.S. warranty pages, non-prescription sunglasses bought on or after November 3, 2022 that show a manufacturing defect within two years are repaired or replaced, and a proof of purchase is required. Scratched lenses are not covered, and damage outside the warranty goes to Costa’s paid repair program. Start a claim on costadelmar.com, not on the settlement site.

Yes, the case is real. Smith v. Costa Del Mar, Inc. is pending in the Circuit Court for Duval County, Florida, as Case No. 16-2025-CA-004472. The court certified the settlement class, appointed Holland & Knight as class counsel and Epiq Class Action & Claims Solutions as administrator, and signed the preliminary approval order on August 17, 2026. The official website is CostaSunglassWarrantySettlement.com, and the administrator’s toll-free number listed there is 1-877-502-7701.

A real notice from this settlement has a few clear signs. It names Smith v. Costa Del Mar. It sends you to CostaSunglassWarrantySettlement.com. It gives you a Unique ID and PIN to choose a payment method. It does not need a claim form, and the agreement does not ask you to pay anything to receive money. Be careful with a message that asks for a fee, wants your bank login, or points to a different web address. Type the official address yourself instead of tapping a link. People searching for “Reed v. Costa Del Mar email” are usually looking at a different notice. Reed is the separate federal settlement over accident and wear-and-tear repair fees, and it has its own website and deadlines; see our report linked below. You can be in more than one of the Costa cases.

The case began in federal court. On or about August 20, 2018, the plaintiff sued in the Middle District of Florida under the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act. The settlement agreement says “The parties reached a court-approved class action settlement, which was subsequently vacated by the Eleventh Circuit and the Federal Action was dismissed on jurisdictional grounds on June 17, 2025.” The earlier federal deal is no longer in effect; anything you got or read about it does not apply to this one. The plaintiff refiled the same claim in Duval County on or about July 24, 2025, and Costa answered on or around January 6, 2026.

The legal theory is narrow. The suit claims Costa’s uniform written warranty language created a full warranty under federal law, which would not allow a fee for fixing a covered defect. It also claims the $11.95 processing fee on warranty repairs broke that rule. Costa “has denied and continues to deny each and every allegation of liability, wrongdoing, and damages.” The court noted Costa’s argument that the claim is entirely time-barred. The judge rejected that argument at the motion-to-dismiss stage but called it a meaningful risk.

This is the warranty piece of a three-case package. The agreement says the parties “negotiated a global resolution of all three actions”: Smith; Reed v. Costa Del Mar, Inc. in federal court in Orlando, over fees for accident and wear-and-tear repairs; and Haney v. Costa Del Mar, Inc. in Duval County, for Florida buyers. The material terms were agreed with mediator Terry White on April 2, 2026, after mediation sessions in October 2023, February 2024 and October 2025. The three are separate settlements with their own classes and deadlines. A customer who paid both a warranty fee and a repair fee may be paid from more than one. Our earlier reports on Reed and Haney are linked below.